Scarlet Letter Theme Analysis Essay

Alex Fisher
Mrs. Gommerman
English 11
2/15/17
The Scarlet Letter Theme Analysis
The Scarlet Letter, at its most basic element, is the story of an adulteress and her place in the town of Boston in the late seventeenth century. The adulteress, Hester Prynne, is put on trial and sentenced to public shaming that day and to wear a letter “A” on herself for the rest of her life. From there on the story becomes progressively more symbolic, with the characters and objects in the story representing abstractions rather than the physical characters following a plot. Throughout the novel the use of symbolism is used repetitiously, and serves an important purpose. Hawthorne uses symbolism to illustrate his liberal view on societal justice in regard to the

As Dimmesdale stands atop the scaffold where Hester was first shamed for her adultery, a meteor comes down and illuminates the night sky. This serves a symbol of Dimmesdale being an adulterer by shining light upon him and this troubles him deeply. An example of this is by the description of the meteor itself. “[The buildings in the town] were visible, but with a singularity of aspect that seemed to give another moral interpretation to the things of this world than they had ever borne before” (149). They were visible as a direct result of the meteor. This causes him to be put in the spotlight for his crimes in front of the entire town, albeit at night when no one can see him. This imagery is especially powerful because of the scaffolds being the location where Hester was first publicly shamed for her adultery and where she held fast against disclosing the name of the adulterer. For Dimmesdale, as a preacher, he is being shamed in the light of God for his sin. This accentuates Dimmesdale’s struggle against his public identity as a young and esteemed preacher who is seen as a symbol of all things holy with his internal conflict and view of himself as a sinner. The Puritan society symbolizes him because of his status as a preacher and is oblivious to his internal conflict and instead blames Chillingworth for his ill appearance. This is shown because the town views Dimmesdale as “little less than a